Episode #3: Is Judaism a Religion? (Part II)
“The modern concept of religion was and is not a neutral category.”
- Leora Batnitzky (Professor of Jewish Studies & Religion, Princeton University
What happens when a revolutionary Jewish thinker - fed up with his lower status as a Jew in 1700s Prussia - wants people to start thinking about the very essence of Judaism in a new way? And what happens when a Prussian Christian theologian has a very different idea of what Judaism should look like? Who gets to decide what counts as “religion,” and how that should shape our understanding of how Judaism can be meaningful in our lives? In Part II of this episode, we reach the conclusion of figuring out: can we even call Judaism a religion?
In This Episode…
We learn about…
What on earth is meant by “Judeo-Christian”?
How being “spiritual” is not only an inner experience in Judaism
The problem with “kids these days,” not wanting religion (in the 1700s)
The radical ideas of Jewish individualism that Moses Mendelssohn proposed
How a German theologian invented “religion”
How “religion” can be (or was) anti-Jewish
What Jews Have to Give Up in Exchange for Citizenship
A Brief Tale of Historical Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations
How Eastern Europe, North Africa & Central Asia are playing a completely different ball-game.
Today’s Jewish Identities & Geo-Politics
My own answer to the question - “Is Judaism a Religion?”
And why does all this matter for how we understand what it means to talk about or be Jewish today?
From this Episode…
Why Jewish Memory Matters
“There is no sense in Judaism of the atomic individual – the self in and for itself – we encounter in Western philosophy from Hobbes onwards. Instead, our identity is bound up horizontally with other individuals…We are also joined vertically to those who came before us, whose story we make our own. To be a Jew is to be a link in the chain of the generations, a character in a drama that began long before we were born and will continue long after our death. Memory is essential to identity – so Judaism insists … To be a Jew is to know that the history of our people lives on in us.” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, quoted at MyJewishLearning)
The Science of Jewish Memory
[An] exercise of looking at Jewish ideas from the neuroscientific perspective: consider one of the central prayers of our liturgy…Embodied within these hallowed verses from Deuteronomy are several mitzvot (commandments) that can be understood as the ways in which memory, remembrance, and not forgetting work within us all. (Mitchell Freedman, MD, Sinai and Synapses)
Canadian Jewish Demographics
“Identifying oneself as a Jew is not what it used to be. Three centuries ago, being Jewish meant practicing a distinct religion… For most Canadian Jews today, the basis of Jewish identity is less about religion than about culture, ethnicity, or a combination of culture, ethnicity, and religion.” (Environics Insitute, 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada)
Jewish Memory & Rituals of Communal Mourning
Learn about the how certain Jewish holy days incorporate a “choreography of grief reenactment,” carrying people through stages of grief to help process and understand historical catastrophes. (Rabbi Yitz Greenberg at MyJewishLearning)
Jewish Ethnic Groups
After exile from the Land of Israel, Jewish diaspora communities around the globe evolved culturally, spiritually, and legally - influenced by, and often taking on the local flavour of the wider societies in which they lived. Many Jewish identities have flourished, and continue to evolve.
Jewish American Demographics
“Overall, about a quarter of American Jewish adults do not identify with the Jewish religion: They consider themselves to be Jewish ethnically, culturally or by family background, but they answer a question about their current religion by describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” rather than as Jewish. Among Jewish adults under 30, four-in-ten describe themselves this way.” (Pew Research Center, Jewish Americans in 2020)
Jewish Beliefs in the Messiah & a Future Redemption
While even the earliest Jewish texts are highly speculative about what a future messianic age might look like, one common feature is the notion that Jews - living in diasporas around the world - would be regathered back together into a cohesive community. Learn more at MyJewishLearning.
Terms & Translations from the Episode
“Judeo-Christian:” A term - not of Jewish origin - used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity’s derivation from Judaism, Christianity’s borrowing of the Tanakh (Hebrew/Jewish Bible) to constitute the “Old Testament” of the Christian Bible, or due to perceived parallels or commonalities shared by the two religions. The term first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity, and became widely used in the United States during the Cold War to suggest a unified American identity opposed to communism. The Jewish attitude towards the concept has been mixed.
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein played a central role in mid-20th-century analytic philosophy. He continues to influence philosophical thought in topics as diverse as logic and language, perception and intention, ethics and religion, aesthetics and culture, and even political thought. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura (c. 1445 – c. 1515): Commonly known as “The Bartenura,” he was an Italian rabbi, born in the Papal States, best known for his commentary on the Mishnah - the earliest collection of the Jewish oral and legal tradition. After travelling to the land of Israel, he rejuvenated the Jewish community of Jerusalem and became recognized as the spiritual leader of the Jews of his generation.
Ashkenazi Jews: A Jewish ethnic division and style of liturgy and law, associated with Jews who fled their (then current) communities in the Land of Israel, Babylonia and Western Mediterranean. They established communities along the Rhine river in Western Germany and in Northern France during the Middle Ages. In the late Middle Ages, due to religious persecution, the majority of the Ashkenazi population shifted steadily eastward, moving out of the Holy Roman Empire into the areas later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, comprising parts of present-day Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Estimated at 10-11.2 million people today.
Sefardi Jews: A Jewish ethnic division and style of liturgy and law, originating in the Iberian peninsula, meaning “Spain” in Hebrew. Largely expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century during the Reconquista, they carried a distinctive Jewish diasporic identity with them to North Africa, Western Asia, and South-Eastern and Southern Europe, including France, Italy, and Greece. Estimated at 3.5 million people today around the globe. Sefardi and Ashkenazi approaches to Jewish law and custom were often diverse, and as communities blended throughout history, adaptation took place.
Mizrachi Jews & Judaism: A Jewish ethnic division, meaning “Eastern,” in Hebrew, these are the descendants of the Jewish communities that had existed in Western Asia and North Africa from Biblical times into the modern era. Almost exclusively applied to communities from Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunisa, Algeria, Morocco, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. Estimated at 4.6 million people today, largely in Israel.
Persian Jews: The current Jews of modern Iran, and the descendants of Jews who were historically associated with the Persian Empire. The biblical books of Esther, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah contain references to the lives and experiences of Jews who lived in Persia. Iranian Jews constitute one of the world’s oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities. Jews have had a continuous presence in Iran since the time of Cyrus the Great (c. 550 BCE).
Some Other Ideas
In Canada right now, this entire conversation isn’t just theoretical exercise. Bill 21, a law in Quebec bans people from wearing religious articles of clothing - such as yarmulkes and hijabs - if they work in public service roles - such as teachers, lawyers, and medical professionals. Many people argue that this is a discriminatory law that “disproportionately impacts people who are already marginalized.” (CCLA) This law is based on the idea - the very French idea - that religion is private. Never mind that Montreal has a giant cross atop the city’s highest mountain, or that until 2019, a crucifix hung in the building of Quebec’s provincial legislature.
Over at the journal Sapir, Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove argues for a Judaism thick with what he defines as actual religion:
As important as nonreligious expressions of Judaism may be, they are entirely insufficient to transmit the riches of Judaism from one generation to the next. In many cases, the secular commitments of American Jews serve as compensatory guilt offerings hiding paper-thin religious identities. In all cases, they presuppose a commitment to Judaism that, for much of American Jewry, is not as present as we would care to admit. My concern is that ramified effects of a Judaism without the foundation of religion will prove to be our undoing, a giant sinkhole into which the hard-earned superstructure of American Jewry will collapse.
Key Sources
[00:00] - Prologue & Recap
[01:25] - What is Religion? (Still no answer)
[03:30] - Back to Moses Mendelssohn
[05:12] - Opening Credits
[05:43] - Moses Mendelssohn’s Very Revolutionary Thoughts
[09:50] - Friedrich Schleiermacher Also Has a Problem
[11:17] - Friedrich Schleiermacher Invents Religion
[12:45] - Now We Know What Religion Is
[13:45] - How “Religion” can be (or was) Anti-Jewish
[15:10] - What Jews Have to Give Up in Exchange for Citizenship
[17:35] - What’s Changed Today & Why This Question Still Matters
[18:25] - A Brief Tale of Historical Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations
[19:50] - Schleirmacher & Mendelssohn are not Friends, but They’re Working Together to call Judaism a Religion
[21:55] - What’s up in Eastern Europe, North Africa & Central Asia?
[23:45] - Today’s Jewish Identities & Geo-Politics
[26:40] - Nu? Is Judaism a Religion?
[28:15] - Religion is not a Neutral Category
[29:52] - What Lens Are You Using to Look at Judaism?
[31:00] - The Big Question
[31:55] - Being “Spiritual” is not only an Inner Experience
[32:50] - What do you do with the Answer?
[34:10] - Closing Credits
Leora Batnitzky. How Judaism Became a Religion: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought. Princeton University Press (2011).
Brent Nongbri. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept. Yale University Press (2013).
J.E. Barnhart. The Study of Religion and its Meaning: New Explorations in Light of Karl Popper and Emile Durkheim. De Gruyter (1977).
Peter Harrison. ‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press (1990).
Daniel Dubuisson. The Western Construction of Religion. Johns Hopkins University Press (2003).
Clay Bonnyman Evans.Why Mendelssohn (Moses, not Felix) matters. Interview with Elias Sacks, Assistant Professor of Religious studies and Jewish Studies. Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine (2017).
Jonathan Slater. “Neo-Hasidism for Today’s Seeker” in A New Hasidism: Branches. JPS (2019).
Haviva Pedaya. “Spiritual Awakenings: An Interview with Haviva Pedaya” in A New Hasidism: Branches. JPS (2019).